Death Singer
by GentleDark
Summary: A rare form of shinigami, Shuichi is one of the weakest of his race. So what does he do when he finds himself faced with the problem of saving those he cares about? Pairings: Various. Warnings: Mild Character Death/Language/Adult Situations/Mild Violence.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation. It would be awesome for me if I did though wouldn't it?

**Death Singer**  
**Prologue

* * *

**

The young man froze, head cocked so that pink hair fell into the violet eyes gazing beyond the wall before him. He flowed to his feet, drawn by a silent siren call that echoed within his heart.

"So it's time."

Shuichi lowered his head and considered not answering the call. A sigh escaped. No, he could never do that. How could he exist knowing he had done something so heinous to his own lover? He had to hurry. The longer he waited the worse it would be… for both of them. The sheets of half formed lyrics were forgotten on the table behind him as he ran into the street, desperate to find his Yuki.

Street lights flashed by, dark buildings blurring as he sought the novelist that was his lover. The sound swelled and thrummed through his bones so hard it made his teeth ache. He was close by Shuichi could feel that, but it was too loud. He couldn't pin point the exact direction he had to go. It crashed over him in waves, a silent symphony. Shuichi closed his eyes, hands gripping his head as he tried to think. It was so difficult to think. Gravity had a sound; one that was heavy enough to drive anyone who could listen to the grave. The grave… that's it...Yuki! That was why he was there. Yuki was close by, but where?

Shuichi opened frantic eyes once more. He knew better than to let himself get caught up in the music, not on a job as important as this. Where was Yuki? He had to get to Yuki. A flash of golden red in the sky above caught the boy's attention and he tracked it with his eyes as it lit the dark alley way with a golden glow. He smiled in gratitude. Now he knew where to go. He hurried after the flaming tail that sparkled around corners leading him toward his goal. The dancing light ahead of him disappeared at the same instant the throbbing music died. Here. Yuki was here.

Shuichi's breath came in gasps and his side had a stitch that had started several blocks back. He didn't even notice the pain as he picked his way to his lover's side.

"Y-Yuki?" he whispered.

The blond was sprawled on the ground, his dark clothes rumpled beneath him. His wallet lay open and empty on the ground at his side. His chest rose and fell with each breath he took making a sucking sound. His golden eyes clouded, and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

"Oh Yuki," Shuichi sighed as he sank down to cradle Yuki's head in his arms. Trembling fingers brushed golden locks away from a face as pale as death.

"Brat?"

"I'm here Yuki. Don't worry. It'll be okay," Shuichi soothed.

"No it won't. I'm dying," Yuki grouched, irritable even in the face of his own death. Shuichi gave a quiet laugh even as crystalline drops fell down his face.

"Yeah, you're dying, but that's what you've been wanting. I promise you, it'll be okay."

"You _know_."

"I've known. I wanted to make you as happy as I could before... I tried so hard to make you happy. I'm sorry."

"You did… you did make me happy." Yuki's words were thin and reedy, hampered by the sucking wound in his chest.

"It wasn't enough," Shuichi murmured, still carding his fingers through Yuki's hair.

"N-not your fault," a sharp gasp escaped his lips as he tried to breathe. His mouth moved without sound, then "I think the shock is wearing off- it's really starting _to_… _to_ _hurt_."

"No it doesn't. I won't let it hurt you. I won't let anything hurt you anymore," Shuichi promised.

Yuki rolled his eyes toward Shuichi in a half hearted glare that Shuichi ignored. Shu let his head fall back as the music of his being flowed through his chest and out of his snow white throat.

The strain in Yuki's face eased, peace settling over him as the agonizing pain left his body. The music he sang onstage was nothing like this. This music was old and dark, shimmering through the air like black velvet that draped over the two of them, cutting out the rest of the world. Words that held no form, made no sense to the human mind fell from his lips. Beautiful tawny eyes slid closed as he listened to the music, humbled and awed by the incredible beauty of the sound his lover made.

Shuichi saw Yuki's eyes close. His song rose drawing wisps of light from Yuki's body. An ethereal glow flooded through the blonde's body. Shuichi's song grew soft once more when the glow completely enveloped Yuki's body. Shuichi dragged his hand through Yuki's chest; gentle fingers cradling a swirling silver mist and drawing it from the body on his lap. The body gave one last gasp and stilled. Shuichi laid Yuki's head back to rest upon the ground with a tenderness that the author's body would never feel.

Shuichi rose to his feet still cradling the soul within his hand. The soul pulsed until it started to expand into a human form that wavered. Then Yuki stood before him. He appeared just as he had in life, the same stunning jerk that greeted Shuichi every morning with a dismissive grunt. He wore the same black slacks and trench coat that he'd left the house in that afternoon, the same navy shirt, and his shades were propped on top of his head.

Yuki stared down at his body.

"Fuck."

"Yuki?"

"I'm really fucking dead aren't I?"

"Yes," Shuichi said in a soft voice. Nervous fingers plucked at the hem of an orange shirt. He hadn't bothered to put on any shoes or grab a jacket when he had felt Yuki's injury; he'd left as he was with just his favorite cargo shorts and t-shirt. At least he had socks as he stood there next to the corpse of his lover.

"Well now what Brat?"

"Hey! You can't keep calling me Brat. I'm your psychopomp, show a little respect will you?"

"I didn't respect you before, what makes you think I'm going to respect you now?" Yuki fished around in his pockets. A pack of cigarettes and a lighter were the reward of his efforts. He pulled a cigarette into his mouth from the pack and shoved it back in his pocket.

Shuichi reached up and snagged the cigarette from his lips before Yuki brought the flame near enough to light the tip. He'd been trying to get the novelist to quit for ages.

"You're dead, you don't need to smoke anymore," he answered Yuki's silent question. Incredulous eyes stared at him. Shuichi frowned right back in the face of Yuki's disapproval.

"I'm dead. It's not like it's going to kill me," Yuki countered.

Shuichi blinked.

"Yeah well… It's still a nasty habit," the pink haired boy grumbled. They stared at each other in silence for a moment. Shuichi jerked his head when Yuki's hand shot out to ruffle his hair.

"Huh. I can still touch you in this form."

Shuichi smoothed his hair down, staring up at Yuki from under his bangs with a peeved look. Even dead the man was difficult. "Well of course you can. Come on, I have to deliver you to the afterlife now. There's someone waiting for you and he's been giving Shina trouble for years. I promised her I'd take care of it since I got you."

"But I can still touch you in this form," a wicked grin. Fingers pulled at Shuichi's waistband, flicking open the button holding his pants.

"What? Yuki we don't have time for this! I'm supposed to take you over now!"

Shuichi wriggled in his lover's grip. His back pressed against the wall.

"You can't stay in this world."

Shuichi's shorts fell to the ground, along with his boxers. He shivered when the cool night air hit his bare skin.

"There's someone waiting, I told you." His hands gripped wide shoulders for support as his legs were lifted and wrapped around Yuki's waist.

"An hour or so one way or the other won't make that much difference will it?"

"And your corpse is right there staring at us and it's weird."

"Don't look," Yuki suggested. Teeth nipped along the young man's throat.

"Yuuuuuki! I have to get you over, and _oohhhh,_ _Yuki_…"

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AN:_ Sooo_, this was supposed to be much more solemn and wrap up his death neatly, but Yuki decided to be quite difficult to work with... ~_~ And I know some of you are probably upset that I killed Yuki right off the bat. I apologize but this is plot necessary or I would have had him just move to Tahiti or something.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation. It would be awesome for me if I did though wouldn't it?

**Death Singer**  
**Prologue **

* * *

"Lemme get this straight…" Hiro pulled some milk from his fridge.

"After you went to collect Yuki, he banged you against the wall of the alley where he died."

The red head opened a cabinet door and dug around for a couple of bowls.

"I couldn't tell him if sex would be available to him in the afterlife, so it was a couple of times actually. Which was totally way weird when we were done because not only was his dead body there but so were these you know, cops and paramedics," Shuichi shuddered.

Hiro ignored this. "Finally you got him to go over with you where the 'original' Yuki, that Kitazawa guy waited for him. They get into a throw down-"

"Nooooo, I don't think there was enough jell-o for it to count as a proper throw down."

Hiro ignored this one too. "Then they have a sucking face make out session after they've sorted out years worth of angst in a way that only a member of the human species could conceivably comprehend."

"Yeah pretty much. And since Shina left _her_ Yuki there at the halfway point to wait for _my_ Yuki I was stuck watching over them," Shuichi snagged the box of cereal that Hiro slid across the table. Hiro poured tea for them both.

"Ok, I think I'm up to speed. Then what happened?"

"Well finally they realized that we were still floating in limbo since I still had to lead them the rest of the way. I think they felt a bit bad when they noticed me crying so they cuddled me for a bit. Then they realized they both were able to touch me. You won't believe this, but the first Yuki is just as much of a perv as my Yuki was," Shuichi spoke around a mouthful of rainbow colors.

"No. Oh no. You are bullshitting me. Do _not_ tell me they made you the Shuichi cream filling of a Yuki sandwich."

Shuichi ducked his head with a blush.

"There have got to be laws about that sort of thing, and you never bothered to find out did you? Damn it Shu, I know this was your first collecting job as a shinigami, but you cannot _do_ stuff like this!"

"Stuff like what?" Shu muttered defensively before sticking the spoon back in his mouth in defiance that approached violent.

Hiro pinched the bridge of his nose. He reached over and with great precision moved the box of cereal out of the way so he could look Shuichi directly in the eye.

"Shuichi Shindou, you listen to me. Your job is leading the dead souls you are assigned to their final resting place. You are not supposed to try to get involved in their lives prior to death so they have happy memories to take with them. You are not supposed to have sex with them. You are most assuredly_ not _supposed to fall in love with them."

"What am I supposed to do then Hiro? Who can I fall in love with?" Shuichi asked in a voice of quiet agony. Tears filled his eyes but didn't fall. He widened his eyes and he blinked rapidly trying to hold them back. This was the one topic he promised himself he would never cry over because if he did he was afraid he wouldn't stop.

"Shu, I…" Hiro closed his eyes and shook his head before opening them again to look at his friend. "I don't know."

They both knew what Shuichi was. He was different. He was weak and the only strength he had was feared by the others so there was no way he would ever find a mate amongst the shinigami. Hiro was right out for obvious reasons. He couldn't fail his duty to transport the souls that he was assigned to collect. It was cruel to the souls to allow them to linger. Human souls just weren't capable of dealing with the changes that came after their own death and being dead didn't make them any less human. Keeping one of them was not even an option to his mind.

So what choice did that leave him? He could follow all the unwritten expectations of not caring about the little mortals beyond collection and deposit of their souls like so many of the others, but unlike them he didn't have the wide range of options in finding a mate. Besides, it wasn't against the rules to _love_ a human he was meant to collect. He would be the only one getting hurt when the human moved on, right? Even so, could he exist without affection even if it was doomed? How could he be expected to live the rest of eternity without a lover simply because of the way he was born?

It wasn't fair.

The silence stretched as the two friends contemplated Shuichi's situation.

"I'm sorry man. I'm just worried about you. You feel so much and I know that's part of what you are as much a part of who you are, but I'm worried about you. You'll know the humans you have to collect anywhere from an hour to a year in human time, but how many centuries will you exist? You can't make this a habit. It'll destroy you."

"I know, but I can't help it. I wanted him to be happy to be alive even if it was only for a little while."

Now the tears did fall, but they weren't for himself so he let them.

"This isn't about him. He isn't a concern anymore. _You_ are. This is about _you_. I'm supposed to protect you, but I can't do that when you put yourself in impossible situations."

"You can't protect me from myself. That annoys the hell out of you doesn't it?" Shuichi teased through a teary smile.

"Yes," Hiro said with complete honesty.

They stared at each other. Their shoulders started shaking. Hiro cracked first, his grin turned into a chuckle. Shuichi giggled. Then the two broke down into howls, laughing and laughing until they could hardly breathe. They were red in the face and clutched their sides in pain as they tried to calm themselves. Hiro tried to keep a straight face as he took a pull from his teacup, hoping the act would compose him. Shuichi wiped his eyes with a sleeve. He was still sad but he felt lighter for the laughter.

'Sleepless Beauty' rang through the comfortable silence, causing Shuichi to tense. He pulled his cell from his pocket and checked the screen even though there was no need. It was K. Good mood gone; Shuichi had been trying hard not to think of how he would deal with the aftermath of Yuki's passing. He was sad Yuki was dead, but not for the reason a human would be. He had the comfort of knowing that Yuki was where he belonged and that he would be with the one he loved.

Across the table Hiro grew serious as well. He nudged his chin toward the phone when the song looped, starting again. The pink haired shinigami took a deep breath and flicked the phone open. He mustered up a smile.

"Good morning K-san! Am I late? I didn't think we had to work today," he chirped.

"Then why do you sound so serious?" Shuichi forced his tone to sound cheerful and oblivious. Hiro stood up to clear off the table.

"Sure, let me get Hiro. If it's a work thing he should come too, and it'll be quicker if he gives me a ride," Shuichi spoke "Okay! Bye!"

The phone clicked shut.

"Hiro… What should I do? I dunno how to act like a human mourning a death! I can't mourn Death, I work for him!"

"Ah maybe you can act the same way you always do when Yuki-san and you would get into fights?" Hiro suggested.

"I wasn't upset he was dead, I was upset he wasn't alive. Those are totally different things man."

"You do realize that I don't know anything more about mourning than you do, right? Of course it's not my reaction they'll be watching. I'll do what I can do cover for you while you decide how to act," Hiro said.

"Huh… What _do_ people do when they hear someone's died?"

"I dunno. Maybe we can google it before we go and you can pick a reaction to have?"

"That actually might work."

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AN: I find it very strange that while I've had a few people favorite and alert this story but no one has reviewed. So, thank you to those who added me to their lists. Why you did, the world may never know but thank you anyway.


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